//------------------------------// // 087 - The Combine Assault // Story: Songs of the Spheres // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// The Combine’s lead ship was a mixture of biological and mechanical components, the latter clearly designed to work with the shape of the former. In looks, it appeared closest to a whale slightly larger than the Enterprise itself, with orange-green skin and six flippers alit with blue jets of propulsion. Instead of eyes, there were gigantic turrets, and on the underside of the ship there were hundreds of smaller guns of unknown designs. In the whale’s ‘mouth’ and the center of its belly were two rings of energy that flashed red in quick succession. Clearly those rings were the big weapons. The Enterprise decided not to let the invading force shoot first. There was no ‘they might come in peace’ this time. The laser weapons reached the Combine ship first, revealing them to have no shields whatsoever. The lasers burnt the fleshy tissue of the ship, unable to fully ignite it due to the vacuum of space. The ship shuddered from the attack, flexing its flippers to an upright position. The small weapons on its underside began to fire, sending small bolts of energy that bounced harmlessly off the Enterprise’s shields. The drone weapons hit the Combine ship next, each singular golden bullet cutting through the skin of the ship several times before exploding. The wave of magical orbs completed the job, freezing, burning, and poisoning the fleshy ship until it fell into three pieces, leaking both organic and artificial fluids. The missiles and splitter-nukes that were launched unloaded their destruction on the remaining, smaller ships, filling the night with spheres of pure nuclear energy. Any ships that weren’t outright destroyed were given tremendous doses of radiation – more than enough to kill them later given their organic stature. “Remaining ships undergoing high energy fluctuations! The red rings are increasing in intensity!” “Devote the power in the Rod to defense,” O’Neill ordered. “They’re not aiming at us! They’re aiming at Farpoint City!” “Same order, but spread the shield out to protect them rather than us. Send out another volley of drones while you’re at it, it should take care of the rest of the smaller ones.” The Spectral Rod alit with the power of harmony, more than willing to devote all its energy to keep a city from being glassed. An umbrella shaped shield of holy light appeared behind the Enterprise. Dark red beams of pulsating energy shot to the holy shield, preparing to bring death to the surface. They hit the harmonic shield with such impressive force that space itself shook – but the shield held, dissipating the red beams. The Enterprise’s drones sliced through the remaining ships, destroying most, disabling the rest. “Yeah!” the tactical officer yelled. “Got them!” O’Neill shook his head. “Are communications still down?” “…Yes?” “Then we haven’t won.” O’Neill folded his hands. “That was the kind of force you send to subjugate a single city with overwhelming force. They know we’re here now. They’ll be back if they think we’re still worth it. Scramble the fighters!” The Enterprise opened its four bay doors and let out nearly a hundred smaller fighters, all equipped with basic and magical weapons. They took up positions mostly flanking the Enterprise, but a few went far in front, far in back, or orbiting the planet. “Fighters in space aren’t viable my ass,” O’Neill muttered. “Mauve, Spectral Rod traps, go. Biological disease is probably best.” The Spectral Rod began seeding space with loose biological contaminant spells – including the infamous “Bio” spell they had recently learned from Empress Twilight’s Void. That degraded through almost all life, making it seem as though the target were being eaten alive by disease. It was horrifying, overkill, and definitely what they needed. The reality of the universe shifted, letting a single Combine ship in. Though ‘ship’ would be somewhat of an understatement – the behemoth of a fleshy jellyfish was easily large enough to be a space station that held ships like the Enterprise. The Bio spells activated, tearing through a few of the Combine station’s loose tentacles, but a psychic blue pulse dissipated the spells before it could spread. The jellyfish fired exactly one needle for every fighter in line of sight – every single needle hit its target, destroying every last one of them. O’Neill curled his fist in rage. “Mauve, we might need something extra spicy! Fire all the splitter nukes we have on board!” The splitter nukes fired, four tremendous missiles heading right toward the Combine station. It fired blue lasers at them – but on-board teleportation spells let the missiles avoid the attack. The missiles spread into hundreds of smaller nuclear bombs, ready to disintegrate the station. The station’s psychic energy flashed again – grabbing hold of the nukes and turning them around. “REMOTE DETONATION!” O’Neill shouted. The nukes exploded before they even began to turn back, charring one of the station’s sides. To O’Neill’s horror, he saw the station start to regenerate before his eyes. “Mauve, now would be a good time!” While the Enterprise switched to drone weapons – which were resistant to psychic powers but nowhere near damaging enough for a target this large – the Spectral Rod flashed a brilliant golden color. Six separate beams of light spiraled out from the rod’s front ends, reaching for the Combine station with all the harmonious energy it could muster. The station shot out with a psychic burst that the spell easily broke through. It surrounded the center of the Combine station like a claw, burning it wherever it touched. The biotechnical jellyfish shuddered in pain. Then a smaller Combine ship appeared right above the Enterprise and shot the red-ring weapon down at point blank range. The Enterprise’s shields held, but were falling fast since the laser wasn’t turning off. O’Neill pressed a button on his private console. “ABANDON SHIP! ALL HANDS, ABANDON SHIP!” Not a single escape pod launched. The Enterprise’s Harmony Core took the brunt of the force. The scream could be heard by every sapient entity in the universe. DEATH. In its death throes, the energy vaporized the ship firing upon them – but nothing happened to the Combine station. The Enterprise exploded in a rainbow of color, sending large chunks of itself flying into deep space, some alit with magical fire. The ancient pride of the Merodi Universalis fleet was no more. The Combine station slowly moved to tend its wounds. It also released a dozen or so smaller ships from its bay, ready to take the planet now that the unexpected threat was taken care of. ~~~ “Corona, I am not answering that question!” Eve said with a laugh. “Oh go on, tell her, I want to hear the words come out of your mouth!” Flutterfree giggled. Corona put her hands on her hips. “Maybe for the sake of Citrine’s sanity we better no-” DEATH. Corona fell to the ground, suffering more than the intense headache Eve and Flutterfree received – she felt the rush of emotions flood her mind, that of a psychic entity realizing it didn’t want to die, but it now no longer had a choice. Its entire existence flashing before what would qualify as its eyes… The emotion was so strong it forced her to lose consciousness. “…Ponyfeathers,” Eve muttered, glancing out the window. They could see the remnants of the explosion in the sky. “That was the Enterprise…” Flutterfree gasped. “O’Neill…” Eve pulled her close. “I know. But we’re about to have a problem of our own.” She noticed the tops of several skyscrapers in Farpoint City unfolding, revealing the standard Merodi Universalis lancers. Defence devices created with the intent of ‘lancing’ things out of orbit with a focused magical laser, equipped with computer systems accurate enough to hit an elephant… on the moon. They were also really good at focusing on the same target at once, coordinating to tear it apart in the most effective manner. Eve couldn’t see what they were shooting at with their green lasers. She closed her eyes and tapped into the strong, dense magical field of Farpoint, extending her senses far above the atmosphere. She spied the tremendous station and numerous smaller ships. The station wasn’t being targeted – likely because it was too far away to be precise, and too big to just shoot at hoping it exploded. The lancers were focusing their beams on one small ship at a time, disintegrating one after fifteen seconds of fire. That was too slow. Blue seeker missiles fell from the sky, taking out every single lancer in one fell swoop, collapsing the buildings they were mounted on. Eve, Flutterfree, and Corona were lucky to not be in a defense building. Red lights began to blare all across the city. “WE ARE UNDER ATTACK BY AN UNKNOWN FOE. MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BUNKERS BENEATH THE CITY, IF POSSIBLE. OTHERWISE REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES.” “Or fight,” Corona muttered, coming to. “These invaders don’t know we’re here. They won’t have any idea what hit them. Raging Sights, prepare a cascade.” Raging Sights beeped in affirmation. A complex series of magical circles began to appear around Corona’s limbs, including one directly under her that shook the entire shop, breaking more than a few pieces of merchandise. “You’ll be reimbursed by the government,” Corona said. “If you save my life that’s payment enough!” Citrine blurted. “Just take them out!” The ships that were in Farpoint City launched into the sky. Those that didn’t flee to space – more than half, Eve noticed with disappointment – met the threat from the sky. They were rewarded with instantaneous destruction via plasma weapons. The few ships that did have military-strength shields only managed to fire off a couple of volleys before falling to the enemy. The larger ones crashed back down to the ground, killing thousands in an instant. Flutterfree winced. “Corona, do something.” “On it,” Corona announced, launching into the air. She unleashed the energy stored up in her magical rings, firing at the sky – locking onto the still-distant ships. Flutterfree could only see them as dots in the blue above her. When Corona’s cascade spell hit the dot in the sky, it was surrounded by a series of magical circles and exploded. The explosion created two more magical circles around two other dots, destroying them as well. Corona grinned. “That’ll teach them!” A blue flash lit up the sky – dispelling Corona’s cascade spell after it made its way through three ships. “…Crud. That probably won’t work again.” Flutterfree activated Lolo, looking into the sky for anything hidden – but nothing came to her. All she got was a better picture of what they looked like. Biomechanical whales. Whales that were opening their mouths, unleashing hundreds of smaller ships that spread out across Farpoint City. Corona opted to just shoot at them directly with beams of light magic empowered by Raging Sights. Brute force appeared to keep working, but she failed to destroy them completely – they just crashed, chances high that whatever was inside them would still be ready to do whatever it needed to. Eve joined in the fray, sending her own volleys at the ships – opting for darker magics than Corona, just to mix it up. Deep purple and bright yellow beams shot from the pair, taking out as many as they could. One of the fleshy, but strangely cubical ships crashed within their sight range on a street that was abandoned – people had gotten the idea quickly that being outside was a bad idea. The back of the ship popped open, revealing a squad of troops. Human – or humanoid, at least – soldiers filed out, all with full black body armor, masks, and kinetic projectile weapons in their hands. They were likely to be of no concern since a simple telekinetic field could render most bullets pointless. What was behind them was more concerning. A spider-thing fused with softly glowing alien technologies crawled out of the dropship. It fired a special weapon. Blue rings that looked almost rubbery flew across the divide to Corona, Eve, and Flutterfree. Corona and Eve raised shields. The blue rings passed right through the magical shields, cancelling them. Corona and Flutterfree were completely entangled in the magic-inhibiting projectiles. Eve was only spared because of Seraphim’s automatic protection. “I’m going down!” She shouted to them. “I’ll be back to help once they’re gone!” She waited for a confirmation nod from her two friends before teleporting right above the spider-thing. “I reject your reality and substitute my own,” Eve declared, activating Seraphim’s ability. The entire squad and the wrecked dropship froze in an instant. She cast a tremor spell to shatter everything. The attackers must have labeled her as a primary target, because more of the blue rings shot at her. She shifted Seraphim’s universe to one where magic was a fundamental force built into reality – making the blue rings disappear as soon as they entered the altered reality bubble. While that was happening, she tapped into the magic of the laria stones that were so abundant at the moment. She surrounded her body in them; tapping into whatever magic they had, as well as the magical field of the planet. She fired off the stones as bullets in several directions, taking out multiple entities shooting her with the blue substance. It was at this point they started firing missiles at her. At first simply physical, but then followed with plasma lances designed to level buildings. But she wouldn’t go down. “I AM CHARTER-OVERHEAD EVENING SPARKLE OF MERODI UNIVERSALIS! WHOEVER YOU ARE, THIS IS AN ACT OF WAR, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!” It was at this point they sent something down she couldn’t deal with. A gray slug-like creature appeared in front of her, surrounded in a bubble of its own psychic energy. She attempted to alter reality to make it spontaneously combust. It had been expecting this. It jumped to another reality, not held to the dimensional lock its people had placed on the world. It then appeared right behind her and placed a device on her back. She didn’t have time to change reality again – her body was completely covered in the blue substance. She would have fallen to the ground had the slug not caught her in its telekinetic power. It levitated Corona, Flutterfree, and any other individuals who had been coated in the blue substance to it. Then it vanished, taking all of them with it. Dropships began to land, deploying ground troops to ransack Farpoint City. ~~~ Vriska popped the top off the exile command station, revealing a rung ladder that led down into the earth through a metal tube. DEATH. Vriska passed out and fell down the hole, falling all the way to the bottom of the tube. “Vriska!” Nova shouted, unable to light her horn due to the temporary scrambling of her mind. Rainbow flew down the tube – somehow managing not to touch any of the walls in her downward journey – and stopped just short of Vriska. She placed a hoof on the rung ladder and a wing on Vriska, prepared to get her out of there. “Ugh... Offame…” Vriska muttered. “You’re not okay,” Rainbow said, dragging her back up the ladder. “I’m fine!” Vriska blurted, standing upright. She rubbed the blue bloodied spot on her head. “I’ve been through worse.” “What was that?!” Nova blurted. “Psychic trap, I bet,” Vriska muttered. “For all I know I’m only alive because I’m a powerful psychic, and that was supposed to kill any non-exile who entered here.” “…Am I safe in here?” Rainbow asked. “You’re alive aren’t you?” Vriska muttered. “Nova, come on down.” Nova checked her hoof-screen to convince herself there was nothing harmful down there before crawling down. She quickly realized the pipe was not designed to hold more than one person. “Yeah, Vriska? We need somewhere to go.” “Give me a minute,” Vriska said, placing her hand on a screen next to the only door. She pressed a few buttons, rotating the underground bunker to one of three possible rooms. The door slid open, revealing a rectangular room that was by no means roomy, but definitely large enough to hold the three of them. They filed in and looked around. It was a mostly bare, gray room with two purple lockers on either side. Both lockers were open and completely empty. There was a pile of crushed pink cans in one corner of the room and a well-preserved carapace of a white creature. In the center of the front wall was a large, house shaped conglomeration of monitors. The roof of the house appeared to be simply decorative, but the five monitors beneath that seemed to be real, with the central one displaying a command prompt. Vriska kicked the base of the screens and a keyboard popped out. She began typing furiously, racking her brain for all the commands she could remember. She cycled through all five screens – but every last one only displayed static. “Five player session,” she muttered. “Wonder how it went… This world clearly didn’t get rebuilt…” She tried other commands, cycling through data about the base, finding not much of anything. It was nearly at full power though, which was nice. She put her hands on her hips. “Nothing.” “Care to explain what this is?” Nova asked. “Players of SBURB are usually given guardians – called exiles – to help them through the game. There’s a lot of transdimensional time shenanigans involved, but these screens allow direct contact between the exiles and the players. All the feeds are dead, so all five players are either god-tier, or dead.” She blinked. “Or when the Horrorterrors shut everything down these screens stopped working, I don’t know.” “Anything that might be in the other rooms?” “There’s a transportalizer in another room – think teleporter that works across time – and… Well if this is anything like the Mayor’s base, it’ll connect to the universe that created this one. I’m positive that won’t keep working without Sburb’s background ‘code’ active.” She shrugged. “Might as well check it out though.” The three of them moved to switch to another room – but they heard a clang up above them. Someone was coming down the ladder. Vriska readied her dice and Nova lit her horn. Rainbow realized she had no weapon and made a soft disgruntled noise. A man in full combat armor with a gun slung around his back came into their view. Vriska recognized him for what he was. Shoot, she ordered Nova. The unicorn was more than capable of resisting the troll’s psychic impulses – it just so happened that she agreed with the command. She shot him in the back with a concussive blast, knocking him out. “Right, that’s a Combine soldier,” Vriska muttered. “We need to get out of here faster than fast. Either this planet is being invaded or they want this base. Both options need us somewhere that isn’t here.” She poked her head into the ladder cylinder, retracting it quickly when the soldiers on the ground above them started shooting down. “We can take them, those are just regular bullets,” Nova pointed out. “The Combine are a Class 2 society notorious for using ‘minimal effort’ to subjugate their worlds,” Vriska said. “Give them reason to drop a planet buster on you and it won’t be long before they do.” “Ah. So…” “Make a shield to keep them from shooting down here and I’ll move us to the transportalizer. Happy?” “Yes,” Nova said, doing just that. The three of them piled back into the narrow ladder space while Nova’s shield blocked the bullets. Vriska tapped on the screen, shifting the base around to access another room. The Combine soldiers fired a plasma rifle before the three of them got through - though they were terrible shots, likely due to Vriska’s presence. Nova forced the door closed behind them and welded it. “All right, you know what’s up, how does this thing work?” Rainbow Dash asked, gesturing at the complicated set of controls and the platform that was presumably the transportalizer pad. “We can to go any place or time on this planet. I could take us back to the time the Sburb session was still running if we wanted, but I have a sneaking suspicion that would either turn us to paradox slime or just destroy the universe with an out-of-context paradox.” “Let’s just not go back in time, hmm?” Nova suggested. “Future then!” Rainbow Dash said. “Wouldn’t want to go far, in case we are being invaded,” Nova said. She glanced at her hoof-screen. “You think we would have been told if it was though…” “Do you have a signal?” “No, but we are underground.” “Shouldn’t matter on that screen of yours,” Vriska said, moving to the console. “Right, so, we want to know what they’re doing here, but also want to escape…” They started to hear banging on the door. Nova reinforced it with magic. “Slightly in the future will throw them.” “I can move us to the future, remember?!” Nova blurted. “Just use the normal teleporting aspect, okay!?” “Fine,” Vriska said, setting the time to ‘present’ and dialing in a location a small distance away from the exile command station. She added a few meters in the ‘up’ direction just to be sure they didn’t appear in the ground. Or inside a flower-tree. “Prepare for fall.” “We can all fly,” Rainbow deadpanned. “Then prepare to be shot at. Nova, this is the button. Press it when we’re all on the platform.” She ran to aforementioned platform with Nova and Rainbow. Nova pressed the button – and they landed on the petals of a giant tulip. “Soft landing,” Rainbow said. “Nice choice.” “I wonder how much luck I wasted on that,” Vriska muttered. A small flying thing made out of flesh and mechanical parts flew at them, firing bullets. “Jump!” Nova declared, jumping them five minutes into the future. Nothing flew to attack them. Vriska smirked. “And now we’re in business.” ~~~ The thing Allure had seen was the splitter nuke from the Enterprise failing to actually kill the Combine station. They didn’t really manage to piece together what was happening until it happened. DEATH. Applejack stumbled to the balcony. “What in tarnation is going on?” “Invasion…” Allure said, eyes wide. “We need to evacuate everyone!” Jotaro shouted, charging back to the elevator. Allure and Applejack followed without question. “Dimensional travel is blocked,” Allure reported, fiddling with her dimensional device. “We can’t evacuate to anywhere…” Applejack sighed. “Right… This city probably has defenses, we should use those. Ask Anna.” Allure facehooved. “Eve has her personal number!” “Try the hotel’s number.” Allure dialed, but didn’t get anyone. “Nothing.” The elevator opened to the lobby. They were not the first here – a few other concerned customers had run to the reception desk to ask what in the multiverse was going on. Anna was not behind the desk, instead the receptionist was a poor earth pony mare who had no idea how to handle people. “Clear a path!” Jotaro shouted. Everyone listened to him, letting him walk right to the receptionist. “Do you know where Anna is?” The receptionist nodded. “H-her personal quarters.” “You need to call her. Farpoint is being invaded.” “I-invaded?” It was at this point the emergency message broadcast across the entire city. “WE ARE UNDER ATTACK BY AN UNKNOWN FOE. MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BUNKERS BENEATH THE CITY, IF POSSIBLE. OTHERWISE REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES.” The receptionist fumbled with her phone and called Anna. “Boss, did you hear that? …Mister Kujo – Jotaro Kujo – wants you up here.” Anna’s halo teleported her into the lobby, her expression stern. “What is it?” “Do you have a way to get everyone in the hotel to the bunkers?” Anna nodded slowly. “All elevator shafts and stairwells go beneath the ground.” She jumped over the reception desk and lightly pushed the receptionist out of the way. “This is Anesthesia speaking. If you did not hear, we are being invaded by an unknown foe. Everyone, make your way to the stairwells and go all the way down to the bunkers. Move as fast as you can. Do not take the elevators – they are likely to fail. We will be working on opening the elevator shafts up so you may climb down the ladders within.” She pulled her hoof back, face stern. Jotaro cracked his knuckles. “How many elevator shafts are there?” “Four. I’m recalling all of them to the bottom of their shafts, but that will take a minute. After that I’ll open all elevator doors so people can begin climbing down.” “Some people will slip and fall!” Allure blurted. “How a-” A blue bolt of energy blasted through a nearby wall, went through a man’s head, and passed through the other wall. Everyone in the lobby screamed and began to panic. “STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” Jotaro moved quickly, making everyone in the room trip, forcing them all to stop their panicked running before it could really begin. Time resumed. “GET A HOLD OF YOURSELVES! PANIC WILL NOT HELP YOU! MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE STAIRS AND ELEVATOR SHAFTS. GO!” It did the trick – the running was no longer panicked and in every direction, it was organized. Applejack took a moment to trot up to the one woman who wasn’t running – she was holding the dead man. “Ah’m sorry, but you need to move.” “He… he was all I had…” “And he would have wanted you to get out of this alive,” Applejack assured, gently making her drop him. She helped the woman up and took her to one of the stairwells, where she began walking down. Applejack didn’t tell her to hurry up – she didn’t want her to trip. The moment she was out of sight, Applejack’s breathing quickened. “Ah… Hoo… That was gruesome…” Allure nodded. “Sorry. You haven’t been out here that much…” All the elevator doors opened, revealing empty elevator shafts with rung ladders along the sides. It would be faster, but more dangerous. “We have a problem,” Anna said. “The second to top floor’s communications are broken. I don’t think anyone heard anything we’ve said or done.” “I’ll get them,” Jotaro said. He jumped into the elevator shaft and stopped time, climbing up the ladder with Star Platinum, moving like a monkey. Time was of the essence, he didn’t care if he banged himself up a bit getting up the shaft. As he neared the top, he started having to dodge people. When time resumed, they started screaming at him. “What the hell is wrong with you!?” “Top floor. Communications broken,” Jotaro would explain, and people would stop yelling at him for blocking their climb. It took five time stops to get to the top even with all his carefully calculated motions to maximize speed. He jumped out the door to the second highest floor – having to bash it down since it didn’t receive the memo to open. “EVERYONE UP!” He yelled, punching through all twenty doors on the level. “WE ARE EVACUATING THE BUILDING! GET OUT OF BED AND MAKE YOUR WAY TO AN ELEVATOR SHAFT OR STAIRWELL! GET TO THE BASEMENTS!” A woman who had nothing but a bedsheet tied around her body glared at him. “You want us to go all the way to the bottom?! Are you mental?” “DO YOU WANT TO DIE!?” he shouted. Then he noticed in one of the rooms an elderly man caring for a little girl. Neither of them was going to have the strength to make it down on their own. He offered his hands to them. “I can carry you both.” The elderly man smiled. “Thank you, stranger...” “This might be uncomfortable,” he said, slinging them both over his giant shoulders. “And it’s going to be a rough ride.” He looked the girl in the eyes. “Hold on tight.” He jumped into the elevator shaft. A few people from the floor had started climbing down. Whoever was still in the floor didn’t make it. The top of Platinum Suites was sheared clean off by a stray explosive, killing all who hadn’t been moving fast enough. Jotaro let himself, the girl, and the old man fall through the elevator shaft, hitting terminal velocity. The girl started screaming. The old man simply held on, having faith Jotaro had a plan. He did. Twenty floors before the bottom, he rammed Star Platinum’s fists into a bare wall, creating two large gashes along the side of the shaft. The wall, being purely physical, was unable to harm Star Platinum, allowing them to slowly skid to a stop before they hit rock bottom. Jotaro let out a relieved breath as he moved over to a rung ladder and climbed down the last three floors, many people moving down with him. He made it to the ground and set his passengers down. “You’re safe.” Sweat dripped down his face and one of his arms throbbed, but he still stood tall. “Thank you mister!” the girl said, visibly shaken despite her immense gratitude. Jotaro nodded, walking out of the elevator shaft into the underground bunker. It was a somewhat large space, a bit like a warehouse, connected to dozens of other deep, reinforced locations. A single skyscraper needed a lot of space to accommodate everyone within, especially one with a major hotel in it. “Hey! Jotaro!” Allure called, waving Jotaro over to the other side of the room. Jotaro saw Anna flash in and out of existence next to her, bringing seven or so people with her. Jotaro walked over and sat down, taking a moment’s rest. “Yare yare daze…” “Don’t Ah know it,” Applejack said, looking at all the scared and injured people around them. “But Anna’s doing a great job organizin’ everyone and savin’ them. Ah’m surprised she’s keepin’ her cool.” “Haloes have to,” Allure said. “If they show weakness, at any point, they actually become weaker. If enough people lose faith in her she won’t be able to teleport. So every halo learns to guard their true emotions and thoughts very carefully.” Anna appeared again – but this time one of her wings was broken. She took a deep breath anyway, ready to teleport back up. But then the earth rumbled. They heard as, far above them, something tremendous collapsed. The elevator shaft filled with rubble, cutting off anyone else’s escape. Anna teleported one more time – and came back with no one. “…Platinum Suites, and everything below it, is gone,” she announced. Several people broke into tears or screams. She turned to Jotaro, Applejack, and Allure, lowering her voice. “There are enemy troops moving on the surface. Humanoid, but with varied biomechanical assistance.” Jotaro furrowed his brow. “Find a high-strength communication device. Someone with a holographic screen, we need to be able to see what’s going on out there.” “Seal these bunkers off,” Applejack said. “We can’t let any of them in here.” “But what abo-” Allure began. “Allure, we can’t let a single one of their soldiers in here. Seal everythin’ off.” Anna nodded. “I’ll get on that.” She trotted away, making her way to the control console. Above them, a war raged, the thundering noises driving their way into their skulls. ~~~ DEATH. Renee grabbed her head. “W-what was that!?” I closed my book. “That was the Enterprise exploding.” “The Enterprise was destroyed?” Pinkie nodded slowly. “Yeah… They fought hard, but they couldn’t win.” “We have to go hel…” she paused. “…We can’t win, can we?” “Depends on your definition of winning,” I said, keeping my voice as level as I could. “No, we cannot beat them in a direct conflict. They vastly outnumber us and can bring down tremendous force if they believe it is necessary.” “Who are they?” “They are the Combine. A race that specializes in enslaving alien races and using biomechanical augmentation to add them to its army. Their general goal can be stated simply: ‘to combine everything in the multiverse into one’.” I sighed. “They’re one of the higher Class 2 civilizations, and they’re smart. They rarely attack any multiversal society at all to avoid significant retaliation, instead focusing on growing their power through the conquest of low-level worlds.” “But we’re not a low-level world!” “Farpoint sure looks like it from the outside,” I pointed out. “A single city, should be easy enough to take. Worth the difficulty in overcoming their advanced technology as well because of the unique resource within this world’s crust.” Pinkie nodded. “Yeah, the shiny yellow rock is shiny. They’re like crows.” I took out my notebook again. “They’ll extract a surrender within minutes, I expect…” “Oh, here it comes!” Pinkie said, covering her ears. “Wh-” “WE ARE UNDER ATTACK BY AN UNKNOWN FOE. MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BUNKERS BENEATH THE CITY, IF POSSIBLE. OTHERWISE REMAIN IN YOUR HOMES.” Renee winced. “I suppose we’re already in our bunker, aren’t we?” “Book fort bunker,” I said with a nod. “We need to stay here. They won’t find us.” “How can you be sure of that?” I held up my notebook and raised an eyebrow. “Because I said that’s what would happen.” “…Oh.” She started to hear the explosions rippling in the world above us. She knew, inherently, that people were dying up there by the thousand. “Are you sure we can’t do anything?” “Direct resistance is doomed to fail,” I said. “Corona, Eve, and Flutterfree tried it as one. They’ve been captured.” Renee put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh…” “They will be captured in the next few minutes,” Pinkie corrected me. I grunted. “Effectively the flow of the story has them already captured. It’s not like we could do anything about it even if we tried.” “True…” Renee looked at the two of them. “…What is happening to all our friends?” I closed my eyes. “Corona, Eve, and Flutterfree are being captured… Vriska, Nova, and Rainbow are engaging the Combine over a Sburb remnant… Jotaro, Allure, and Applejack have evacuated Platinum Suites and are currently hunkered down.” Renee let out a sigh of relief. “They’re okay…” I nodded. “And they will be.” “Here’s my next question. What are we going to do?” I look at my notebook. “Soon, the Combine will send a signal directly to the mayor’s office, demanding unconditional surrender. The mayor will agree to this. The Combine soldiers will switch tactics from pure destruction to containment and control, taking a select few off to be added to the Combine’s biomechanical army.” Renee put a hoof to her mouth. “My Stars…” “When this begins, there will be an opening. Ships will be moving from the surface to the Combine station in large droves. We will take a ship over and fly it to the station.” I ruffled my feathers. “That is where we are needed.” “From there we should be able to disable the dimensional lock, right?” Renee asked. “Get out a plea for help?” “It’s possible,” I admitted. “But there will be other things up there. Namely, those who have been captured. They won’t be taken out of a universe for a while yet.” Pinkie looked at me. “There’s something else up there we’re going to find, isn’t there? Something very important.” I nodded. “That is true. But right now it doesn’t help us to know what that is. We do need to be up there. The rest can handle things down here. Is that okay, Renee?” Renee bristled. “Of course not, but I’m not going to go against the plan. Because, apparently, fighting directly is just a bad idea. …Sorry, sorry, I know you’re right. I just don’t like sitting here.” I put a hoof on her shoulder. “I understand. But that’s what we need to do for… not much longer.” Pinkie pulled out a radio from her mane and set it in the middle of the three of us. It crackled to life. “This is mayor Auril of Farpoint City, overseer of the whole of Farpoint Colony. I extend absolute, unconditional surrender to the Combine. I order all troops and citizens to stand down, and am disabling any automated defense measures we have enabled. I have been promised that our attackers will not fire upon us so long as we cooperate. …I am sorry.” The feed cut to static. I stood up and scribbled a note in my notebook. “Get ready. It’ll start soon.” Renee took a breath and adjusted her hat. She decided to take the moment to fix the frazzled hairs on her mane. ~~~ The Enterprise’s bridge tumbled through space, mostly in one piece. It was no fluke of luck – the Enterprise had been designed to split apart when destroyed, keeping all living quarters and the bridge as far from the reactors as possible, allowing them to survive when the rest of the ship suffered critical failure. The system was far from perfect. The bridge had air and simple life support, but only backup power reserves. Several of the consoles had exploded, though no deaths had occurred because of this. The deaths that did occur were from being tossed around the bridge as it tumbled through space, having lost all artificial gravity and inertial dampeners. O’Neill was alive, gripping his seat so hard his knuckles were white. The bridge was still tumbling end over end almost exactly as fast as it had been since the destruction of the Enterprise, ensuring the force pulling everything to the walls would not stop. “R-report!” O’Neill barked. “Anyone!” A young unicorn science officer looked up, lighting her horn. Her coat was a soft blue and her mane a pristine white. “I… I’ve got four living signatures, General. You, me, Ensign Travis, and…” She bit her lip. “Make that three life signs, sir.” “Ensign Travis!” O’Neill barked. “Status?” The burly man coughed from his flattened position on the far wall. “Having a nice rest, sir.” “Clandestine, can you get any report on any of those consoles?” Clandestine pulled herself to the console with her magic, allowing O’Neill to see her broken, bloodied leg. “All but the most basic sensors are down. I can get a visual…” She dragged herself over to the visual scope that worked purely with lenses and not cameras. They needed to be prepared – sometimes there were universes when cameras didn’t work, or cameras showed illusions. “I see the station… and I see smoke coming up from Farpoint. Farpoint City is not a crater.” “Good. How good are you with that horn?” “Decent.” “Think maybe you can slow down our spin here?” “…I’ll try.” Clandestine lit her horn and surrounded the bridge in her magical aura. Over the course of the next minute, she managed to slow the rotation enough that they weren’t being plastered against the walls anymore. “Man, now I have to get up,” Travis muttered, floating into the center of the room. “First rest in weeks.” O’Neill let out a soft chuckle. “If only we could defeat the enemy while lying on our backs. That would be great.” “Sir, orders?” Clandestine asked, floating over to them. She had worked up a profuse sweat. “We just sit,” O’Neill said. “I’m not risking sending out a distress tracker. Travis, you have engineering experience. Try to make those life support filters last as long as we need.” Travis nodded. “There is only three of us, we won’t be using that much of the air.” He moved to a hatch and popped it open. “Condensed oxygen tanks are still mostly full. Won’t run out of air for weeks.” “What about food?” “And there’s a problem,” Travis said. “Not much food up here. I can get us water from the air moisturizers, even if they’re not actively working the water’s still in there. But food…” He looked up. “…Actually, there’s plenty of food here, if it comes to that.” Clandestine put a hoof over her mouth. “Oh, Faust…” “Last resort only,” O’Neill said. “The fact that it’s a resort at all...” Clandestine said, gulping. “You may want to consider learning how to summon food from the aether,” O’Neill observed. Clandestine nodded slowly. “I’ll try. I don’t expect results though.” Something latched onto the bridge, sending a loud thunk reverberating through the interior. The three of them looked up to see a hole being cut through the roof. Travis pulled out his gun. “I really don’t think that’s gonna be good, guys.” O’Neill readied his pulse rifle while Clandestine prepared a beam spell. It was hard to aim in zero gravity, but they all knew exactly where it was coming from. The circular cut was pushed into the bridge, letting bright white light into the dark interior. Nobody came through, but a message was broadcasted. “This is the Combine speaking. Stand down and you will not be harmed.” O’Neill sighed. “For the love of… Fine. Stand down men!” He tossed his gun behind him. Clandestine lowered her horn’s glow and Travis dropped his weapon. A human in white armor poked his head through the hole. “Come on up,” he said, his voice being transmitted through his helmet by a low quality radio. They came up, entering a small, brightly lit interior with a big screen showing the stars outside. There were five other soldiers there, all armed with heavy weaponry. The first soldier shot Clandestine’s horn, coating it in a blue substance. “To prevent any clever tricks,” he said. “Back to the station,” he ordered the pilot, subsequently turning to O’Neill. “I would take you to the holding cell but we’re not going to be flying long enough for me to actually lock you up. So enjoy your relative freedom.” O’Neill nodded slowly. “Who the hell are you people?!” Travis blurted. “Just one small arm of the Combine doing our job,” the man explained, shrugging. “Bastards,” Travis muttered. “You can’t just walk in a-” The soldier shot him between the eyes, blowing his brains out. Clandestine winced. O’Neill kept his features straight. “Low value target,” the soldier said, lowering his weapon. “Low rank, no biological curiosities.” “You trying to comfort us?” O’Neill asked. “Because I’ve got to say, that’s one of the worst attempts I’ve ever seen.” “No. Just answering a stupid question before you ask it.” They arrived at the station in that moment. The hatch below them opened again, becoming much larger than the one-person circle that had been there prior. The soldier shoved the two of them out, dropping them unceremoniously on the cold metallic ground. O’Neill and Clandestine didn’t have time to fully pick themselves off the ground before they were shoved forward. “MOVE!” A new soldier yelled. O’Neill moved forward, glancing behind him to see the ship they had arrived on leaving. He saw Travis’ body dumped out a second later, falling to a level far below. O’Neill looked around, trying to figure out where he could use Crimson Sushi effectively – but there were far too many cameras and soldiers for him to account for. He was just going to have to go along for now. They were marched through a large expansive room indicative of the Combine itself. The majority of the station’s interior was made of dark metal lit with overly bright floodlights. Occasionally, O’Neill would spot a part of the wall or ceiling that was partially biological, indicative of the station’s true nature. They were placed in a long line headed for ‘processing’. O’Neill noticed many many ships docking to drop off a shipment of prisoners, and then leaving right after. What did they need so many prisoners for? As they neared the front of the line, O’Neill saw something that looked like it was in charge. A floating pale slug-thing with two mechanical arms and a cybernetic implant on what O’Neill hoped was its front. “HEY!” O’Neill shouted, pointing at the slug thing. “YOU THERE!” The soldier behind him hit O’Neill with the back of his rifle. “Do not disturb the Advisor!” O’Neill ignored the pain in his head, continuing to glare at the Advisor. “I am Overhead Jack O’Neill of the Class 3 Society Merodi Universalis. Does that mean anything to you!?” “I sai-” Hold your anger, soldier, the Advisor said, speaking telepathically to them. I am performing an inquiry. It appears that he is someone worthwhile. The soldier lowered his gun, silent. “So, what’s that little Internet search of yours telling you?” Merodi Universalis, Mid-Class 3. Overhead of the entire Merodi military. This certainly explains the unexpected resistance from your ship. Why are you here? “This is our colony, in case you didn’t pick up on that.” Unfortunate. Soldier, transfer the Overhead and his aide to the high-value section. “Right away,” the soldier said. “Come along,” he ordered, notably not acting aggressive toward O’Neill or Clandestine anymore. O’Neill and Clandestine were led to an elevator, taken up several levels, leaving the hundreds of other prisoners behind. O’Neill frowned. “He didn’t seem all that bothered about me. Just interested.” “You should be honored,” the soldier told him. “The Advisors rarely speak to anyone.” “They need to work on their people skills, then.” The soldier moved to punch him, but restrained himself. Apparently high-value prisoners didn’t get to be roughed up. That was good for now, at least. ~~~ Flutterfree came to inside a clear cube ten meters across on every side. Inside the cube were others like herself – prisoners. She saw Eve and Corona tied up with so many blue inhibitor rings they could barely move. She herself only had them on her wings, uncomfortably pinning the appendages to her body. There were others as well – a medium-sized dragon, a cyborg, a woman in wizarding robes… “Welcome to the high-value prisoner box,” Corona said, forcing a smile. “Those deemed ‘interesting’ or ‘powerful’ or, in the case of that politician over there, ‘possibly important’.” Eve grunted. “And those of us who have a lot of magic are wrapped up in so much blue stuff we can’t even move.” “Ah,” Flutterfree said, instinctively trying to spread her wings, disappointed when she remembered she couldn’t. “So, what are we going to do?” “Dunno,” Corona said, summoning Bacon Pancakes. “They’ve blocked all our powers.” Flutterfree got the memo – don’t mention the Stands. “What about your firebending?” “Do I look like I’m able to move my body? Or that this clear polymer whatever can be burnt through?” “Right, sorry,” Flutterfree said. She tossed her mane back. “Are you two uncomfortable? Can I do anything?” “Might want to look outside the box,” Eve said. “We’re good enough.” Flutterfree got the message. She did start looking outside the box – but she also summoned Lolo, careful not to activate it enough to make it visible. She wormed the invisible vine of Lolo through an air hole in the box’s ceiling, extending her field of view. The box of prisoners was suspended in the middle of a larger, cubical room with metal walls. On the floor beneath them they could see lots of people working on consoles – mostly humans, but a few other races as well. There as a large tub in the center of the room filled with the blue substance, many Gem gemstones submerged in it, presumably for study. “Oh. …I hope they don’t experiment on us.” “They might,” Corona said. “Or at least look at us very, very closely until they decide what to do with us. We really don’t know.” “Do we know who they are?” Flutterfree asked, continuing to spread out Lolo’s tendrils out of the cubic room and further into the station, searching. Eve shook her head. “No idea. I don’t remember hearing about anything like th-” O’Neill and Clandestine were thrown into the prisoner box through a flap that didn’t exist any longer than was needed. “Ugh… I’m really starting to think the Combine need to get their prisoner treatment straight.” “O’Neill!” Flutterfree said, beaming. “You’re all right!” “Yeah, yeah…” “Welcome to the high-value prisoner box,” Corona said with a wink. O’Neill glanced at Flutterfree, noticing Lolo’s vines spread out and extending beyond the box. “All our powers have been taken,” Flutterfree said. O’Neill summoned Crimson Sushi with a grin. “Well doesn’t that absolutely suck?” Corona summoned Bacon Pancakes again, and Eve did the same with Seraphim. Clandestine sensed something was going on. She looked to O’Neill confused. Before she could ask a question, she noticed his insignia switch sides on his shirt for a split second. Crimson Sushi had switched just her perceptions, announcing its presence. “So, how’s about escaping?” O’Neill suggested, smirking. “Even if we could, which we can’t, where would we go?” Eve said, looking at Flutterfree closely. “We don’t have any idea where the docking bays or escape pods even are.” Flutterfree gulped, suddenly understanding just how much their hopes all depended on Lolo’s ability to find a way out. “So we just wait then,” Clandestine asserted. O’Neill shook his head. “Everybody hates waiting. Really hates waiting. Would do unspeakable things to keep from waiting.” “I get the point!” Flutterfree hissed. “You. Don’t. Like. Waiting. Well suck it up and wait anyway, mmkay? These things take time.” O’Neill chuckled. He then told them what he had learned on his way over here about the Combine, his encounter with the Advisor, and the whole battle with the Enterprise. It was a way to pass the time, at least. ~~~ Vriska, Nova, and Rainbow watched as the Combine military unearthed the exile command station. It was white with a mostly cylindrical appearance, but there were three spikes in the bottom, along with a round protrusion out of what could be considered the ‘back.’ The Combine had already started taking it apart, finding the control console, transportalizer, and the third room – which had exactly what Vriska thought it would have, a console that would be able to connect to the universe that created this one. If everything were working properly. …Even if they only got a hold of the transportalizer, they’d be able to do some serious damage without even realizing what they were doing. Right, so, Nova, Vriska said telepathically. You can make a really, really big boom if you need to, right? You know I can. So blow this thing the fuck up. They’ll detect me charging up that big an explosion! Then use some time shenanigans! Make it blow up in the future or something! Fine, Nova said, narrowing her eyes. T-minus five minutes until explosion. “Are you guys having a conversation?” Rainbow asked, whispering. Yes, now quiet, Vriska ordered. Rainbow, not having had much experience with Vriska’s mental powers, did not have any choice in the matter. Less than a minute later, Nova sent a message back. Done, everything here should be blown to kingdom come in four minutes. Mind taking us a little bit past that? You know if we jump far enough into the future and miss a key event, I’m not going back. Just do it. The three of them jumped into the future. They now stood in a crater where the Combine soldiers and exile command station had been. Vriska whistled. “Nice.” “What just happened?” Rainbow asked. “I blew it up,” Nova said. “Please tell me those Combine soldiers deserved that.” “Any Combine soldier is either loyal to a fault, or brainwashed to be so,” Vriska said. “The kind of brainwashing is one of two particularly nasty varieties too. Physical rewiring of the brain, or the good old-fashioned propaganda approach.” “You and the Doctor faced them, I take it?” Vriska nodded. “And me and Twilence. They’ve been around a long time. Cause a lot of problems for low level societies.” “They’re trying to take over the planet, aren’t they?” Rainbow asked. “Most likely,” Vriska said. “So, how are they usually beaten?” Nova asked. “Brute force is never an option,” Vriska said. “They’re number four on the Class 2 strength list, and they’re careful not to make any bigger fish angry by only attacking lower-level worlds. Makes them progress slowly, but they’re definitely powerful now. The way you defeat them is by convincing them it’s too much trouble to hold onto a single world. The old-fashioned internal rebellion method.” Nova blinked. “How long does that usually take?” “Years,” Vriska said. “Longer, I expect, since this planet has a really valuable yellow rock in its crust.” Rainbow glared. “Well screw that, who cares how long it takes? This is our planet and we’re going to fight for it! We’re going back to Farpoint City and we’re going to form a resistance! Or a rebellion! Or some other force that starts with R!” Vriska smirked. “The pegasus is right. Overwhelming odds have never stopped us before, have they? We’ve got luck on our side, time magic, and a really spunky pegasus. I’d like to see them try to stop us.” Nova chuckled. “Just go charging in?” “For all we know there’s already a resistance. Or the battle’s still going on.” Vriska pointed at Nova. “Teleport us back into the city!” The reverse long-range teleport wasn’t anywhere near as difficult since Nova had recently been where they wanted to go. Farpoint City had clearly lost the battle. Roughly a fourth of the skyscrapers had fallen to ground level, with copious amounts of dust filling the air. Dead bodies were everywhere, watched by biomechanical lifeforms of all kinds. There were no sounds of heavy resistance or gunfire – just the occasional scream. People were being led, heads down, into ships and taken into the sky. The Combine had taken the city easily, despite all the efforts. Vriska curled her hand into a fist. “See this fist, Combine bastards? You’re going to get it in the face. Again.” ~~~ “We’ve surrendered,” Anna told Jotaro, Applejack, and Allure. “Everyone’s being called to stand down and serve the Combine.” She handed them a little pocket radio. “…I don’t know what to tell them.” Applejack looked at her. “You don’t.” “I… don’t?” “We can. …Do you know of another bunker we can use nearby? Better suited for defense?” Anna bit her lip. “…There’s one deeper down, through the sewers. Bit harder to get to.” “Good. Jotaro, get everyone’s attention. Ah’ve got a thing or two to say. Allure, record this on your phone.” Jotaro summoned Star Platinum and clapped loud enough to send a gust of air through the section of the bunker they were in. “LISTEN UP!” Everyone turned to him, expectant. He stepped down – and Applejack stepped up. “Howdy, y’all. Ah’m Applejack, Equis Vitis. Some of you might know me, most don’t, and that frankly doesn’t matter right now. What does matter is that all of Farpoint Colony has surrendered to our attackers – the Combine. We have been asked to cooperate with our conquerors completely. If you want to do that, Ah won’t stop you, and there’s no shame in doin’ so. “But Ah’m not gonna be doin’ that. Ah’m not gonna sit here and let a bunch of high and mighty brutes come down, attack my people, and get away with it. They’ve destroyed our city and taken our loved ones from us. They’ve cut us off from the rest of Merodi Universalis, keepin’ us from the rest of our loved ones. Who knows what they’re gonna do with us now? Ah’m sure it can’t be good. “So here’s what Ah’m gonna do. Ah’m gonna go with my friends to another bunker, somewhere better suited for fightin’. We’re gonna gather everyone we can, and we’re gonna make these Combine regret that they’ve ever come here. Ah’m gonna fight them until they let me go home to my family. “Y’all don’t have to come. You can stay here. Ah want everyone who’s comin’ to stay in this part of the bunker – anyone else can go to the other sections. We’ll be leavin’ in half an hour.” She bowed her head and turned around. There was no clapping – just a lot of shuffling of feet and movement as people shuffled out of this section of the bunker. “Send that around,” Applejack told Allure. “The rest of them need to hear that.” Allure nodded, moving to spread it around the bunker, putting it on the portable TVs and radios they had, careful not to let the signal leave the bunker. Applejack looked back at the people who had remained. Maybe one in every ten had decided to stay and fight – the rest had all gone. Probably less. “…That’s not enough,” Anna told Applejack. “It’s not all of ‘em. Give it time,” Applejack said. Allure came back a couple of minutes later. “I’ve spread it around.” She glanced around the somewhat empty section of bunker. “Ooooh…” “Patience,” Applejack said. “Just a little patience…” A few people began to trickle in. At first, there were so few in the room that Applejack saw a few who came in turn around and leave, thinking there was no hope with such a small group. But people kept trickling in. Moving together, determined expressions on their faces. It wasn’t much – nowhere near as much as Applejack had been hoping – but there was enough. Over two hundred people were there in the end. Ponies, humans, Gems… Even some other races from the other worlds of Merodi Universalis. “That’s enough,” Applejack told herself. “Enough to fight from the shadows.” She turned to Anna. “Take us out.” Anna nodded. “Follow me everybody! We’re moving!” She led them out of the bunker section into the next – which was crowded with people. “CLEAR A PATH!” Jotaro shouted. They listened without a fuss, letting the forces of the resistance walk through them, across the bunker compound, to the exit. “Oh I’m going to regret this…” a Rarity pulled herself out of the crowd and took a position slightly behind Allure. “Ahem. Affix is the name, being crazy is apparently my game.” “Glad to have you!” Allure beamed. “HEY! YOU HEAR THAT?” Affix shouted. “It’s not too late to joiiiiin~! You’ve all got until we walk out those doors! C’mon, I know you want to. I did! I just didn’t know it until five seconds ago!” Her words moved some people to join the march. Slowly, but surely, more and more individuals added themselves to the fledgling resistance’s army, lengthening the march to the exit door. By the time they got to it, Anna was smiling. She undid the seal on the door and opened up to the damp, dark sewers. Applejack looked behind them. They had more than doubled their size in the slow march here. Almost five hundred. Applejack smiled. “Regardless of what happens… Ah’m proud of y’all.” Anna’s halo brimmed with energy as they marched through the sewers to prepare a rebellion. ~~~ Sometimes I feel sorry for James. He was just a poor Combine soldier who had a really, really bad day. Perhaps we should have just killed him rather than what we actually ended up doing, but at the time we didn’t know the torment that would fall to him afterward and I didn’t bother to look into the fate of a person who essentially amounted to a ‘faceless goon’ that stood between us and further progress toward victory. After we defeated him, James would go on to be tried by the Combine and found guilty of flagrant negligence and inadequacy. They would not execute him – because that would just be a waste of a man who could be useful elsewhere. One would think it was ‘lucky’ that James was not consigned to biological experimentation, but he certainly didn’t think so after his third week assigned to Combine-controlled hellscape number 127. He spent the rest of his surprisingly long life there. All because of three ponies and an absurd plan that worked because of its absurdity. I knew how everything would play out long before it actually happened – for I had written the sequence of us taking the ship about ten minutes prior. I had been given no indication I had overextended my abilities as a Prophet, which was a rare occurrence to begin with since I was so well acquainted with the ‘rules’ at this point in time. It all started with Renee and her signature move. “You there! Get me off this planet!” she whined. “Get me ooooooooff!” James had been left behind to watch the dropship while the rest of the squad rounded up some prisoners to be taken back to the station. They were nearing the end of the prisoner runs, expecting to have scared the rest of the population to submission in less than an hour. He had not been expecting any of the locals to want to come. He actually displayed a modicum of intelligence at the start. “Why would you want on?” “Because everything’s exploding and smelly and dirty and disgusting and I’m terr-rr-rrified~!” “I… Uh…” “You’re taking people anyway! Just take me! I have a horn! And I’ll be quiet! Just let me iiiiiiiiiin.” “Fine, fine, fine! If it’ll get you to shut up! Get on the ship!” Renee grinned. “Oh thank you thank you thank you!” She rushed him into a hug. “You’re the best!” “I… Wh… Huh?” “Stop!” Pinkie said, appearing behind him. “…Huh?” “Hammertime!” Pinkie said, lifting her hammer. Her dress sparkled as she bashed James across the side of the head, cracking his armor and sending him flying. To his credit, he tried to radio for help – but of course Pinkie’s hammer had hit in just the correct way to damage his communicator. Renee smirked in his direction. “We’ll be taking this now. Thanks for your help!” She blew a mocking hiss at him. “No! Wait! Come back! You don’t know what they’re going to do to me!” He was right, we didn’t know. All we knew was that we had won, and were taking the ship into space with all three of us on it. He never even saw me. I was already in the cockpit when Pinkie and Renee walked to the front of the ship. “So, how are we going to go on from here?” Renee asked. I smiled sheepishly. “Wing it.” “Twilence…” “We need to get on the ship. As I saw with O’Neill, if we just get dropped off unceremoniously, they won’t suspect a thing. We do need to have blue stuff on our horns, but we can cast an illusion for that. First chance we get we teleport a few decks up to more secret locations and enter stealth mode. Fair enough?” “…Why don’t you inform us of these plans ahead of time?” “Because two-thirds of us already know them half the time!” Pinkie said. Renee put a hoof to her face. “I can already tell this is going to go swimmingly.” I made a note. Watch for possible flooding. It was always possible her one-liner was meant to come back with something amusing and threatening later. It was true that most of my notes meant absolutely nothing in the end, but it never hurt to be prepared. I created some fake blue stuff and put it on our horns. I also tied my wings up just to be extra convincing. The Combine station automatically cleared us for docking – after all, every ship was cleared to be here at the moment to deposit prisoners. It was easy to get us in, throw ourselves out of the hole, and then tell the ship to drive itself into the sun. Let them worry about the runaway ship rather than us. “MOVE!” a soldier shouted. “Hey, no need to be all grumpy!” Pinkie said, huffing. “Imma movin’!” We all moved like the prisoners we weren’t, fooling all who saw us. We marched along. I prepared to teleport at a moment’s notice, but I knew there was going to be at least one complication – of what sort, I knew not. Little things often pass my visions, even if I look for them. This meant I knew we would get to our goal, certainly, but not how difficult it would be to do so. As it turned out, somewhere in the middle in terms of difficulty. What are you? The Advisor demanded, floating right to me. Your readings are telling. I realized in that moment they must have gotten ka sensors since I last dealt with them – how else would they have found the exile command station so quickly? I decided to answer honestly. “Twilence.” That is a name. What ARE you? “An alicorn…?” I responded, trying to act as confused as possible. He bought it, but he tried to assault my mind anyway. I forgot to pretend like I wasn’t as skilled a mental warrior as I was and blocked his advances outright. The problem was psychics that powerful just didn’t exist in random alicorns, and the Advisor knew it. “CHANGE OF PLANS!” I shouted, lighting my horn. “Hold on!” We teleported several decks up. The instant we did so, numerous red alarms started blaring. The Combine was now looking for a purple alicorn with an eye on her chest, labeled ‘potentially extremely dangerous’ with the label ‘use lethal force, do not risk capture’. I grinned sheepishly. “So, uh, stealth might be a little difficult now.” “You think!?” Renee blurted. “Don’t worry, just give me a second,” I said, taking out my notebook and scribbling frantically. “Just have to change a little bit here and a little bit there… Wrap it all around… We might end up in some places we probably shouldn’t be, but everything will work out in the end. …Well not everything, but we’ll be able to do it.” “Do what?!” Renee asked. “Be a background influence. We need to be here, and we need to do a couple things to help the others.” I tapped the Eye of Rhyme. “Trust me, I’ve got this.” Then I realized what I’d just said. “Huh. I haven’t been that stupid in a while.”